Love

What is love?
Firstly, you cannot love someone you don't spend time with.
But wait, children are an exception, right?
After all, twenty or thirty years was spent investing my love into them so I love them no matter what.
So, what I have learned from loving others is this... so far, I seem to be able to love others more than they can love me... I think I get that from Jesus.
His capacity to love is so far above and greater than anything I am capable of that it is that 'over 50 years' of getting His love that gives me some to give to others even when they cannot return it.
You know, sometimes I feel so discouraged by my search for a true mate of love... human man now is what I speak of.
One thing I was encouraged with this morning... having spent many years writing my novel and feeling strongly that God wanted me to do that I was wondering why it doesn't bring forth fruit. Should I not expect it to?
As I was listening to a 'sermon' this morning I was so very excited when I felt affirmed by the one Scripture I deliberately wrote into my novel.

       Jeremiah 31:5

I was trying to write a current story to represent the Bible and all the allegory was, I thought, brilliant but I also hoped it would be simple enough for anyone to understand.

Many years ago I met a man I went to church with... during the week by happen-chance, in a public place. I would not say I even had a relationship with him even though we attended the same church but, there we both were, meeting in a public place where we recognized each other and both stopped to chat about the sermon the previous Sunday.

As I listened to him and when he had relayed a frustration he had about the teaching from the pulpit I responded with... 'I think what he meant by that was...'

Our conversation wrapped up with his incredible words of... "Well, why doesn't he say it like you just said it? Then I would understand it! It's so simple the way you just explained it."

That day I realized that I have an ability to take complex teaching and distill it to a more simplified form for better understanding.

It's a gift from God... this is what a few men have told me.

It comes from a love of learning and years of reading the Bible and applying it to the current events of the day. 

I have to confess that I was so frustrated with what seemed like an impossible task when I listened to a young couple ask me questions in church a few years ago. The questions so reveal their understanding or lack of teaching/ learning and I was so disheartened that I have just found that 'responsibility' to be overwhelming and daunting. I thought... how do I explain everything they want to know in this moment when all the back story work has not been done?

I feel I gave my own children the guidance they needed but I do not think their generation all received that. 

So, everyone is in their own unique place of lifes' journey and the words I am applying today are... 'Don't give up!'

Each conversation, each interchange can be important if we all just keep working in this 'kingdom work of love.'